Stepbrothers
by BananaPieThiefX
Summary: Riley Poole's dad is getting remarried... to the mother of the highschool bully! Can our favorite pint-sized gomputer geek survive?
1. Meeting

**AN: **Well, I'm feeling like angst stories right now, and the plot bunny locked me in my closet until I finished this chapter, so enjoy!

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My life didn't start out awful. In fact, I had it pretty good when I was a kid. Most of that was because of my parents. My dad was an English teacher at the local public high school and my mom was a work-from-home journalist. She always said it was their love of words that brought them together. My mom was a wonderful woman who always encouraged me to be creative, while my dad was ambitious and told me to "seize the world". That may sound like a dictatorship, but what he really meant was to take on the world, take it by surprise, follow my dreams, and help make it a better place. My dad always wanted to teach high school English, and he got exactly what he wanted. Between them, my parents gave me the confidence that I could do anything I put my mind to, no matter how unlikely it may seem. But then, when I was eleven, something changed all that. My mom died.

My dad and I were devastated, of course. However, we managed to pull together and stay strong. We supported each other, and her death united us, pulled us closer. But it wasn't long before that ended. About a year and a half later Dad started going out and leaving me at home alone almost every night. Then when I was fooling with the checkbook (I balanced it, I loved math because everything came out the way it was supposed to be) I realized he had spent money on an engagement ring. _Without telling me._ I listened in on a phone conversation or two and found out that she was someone he had met at teacher conferences, and the mother of one of his brightest, most promising students. So really, I wasn't too upset. After all, she sounded nice, and if her son was smart, how bad could he be? Maybe he would help me with homework or something. Not that I really needed it, but it would be a brotherly thing to do, right? Oh how wrong I was.

It's possible that the worst day of my life was the day I turned thirteen. For my becoming a teenager present, I was getting to meet the new Mrs. Poole to be and my future stepbrother. I remember it perfectly. My dad had invited them over for dinner. We would be having my favorite, taco salad, with a dessert of chocolate cheesecake. The doorbell rang and I let my dad answer it, deciding to play it cool and not seem too excited. My dad winked cheerily at me as they came in. I, however, was completely frozen to the spot, my eyes focused on the sixteen-year-old's smirk. It was _not_ possible. There was no way I was going to have to share my house and my dad with _him._

"Ri, say hello," my dad prompted. I turned red as the teen chuckled upon hearing my nickname. I didn't say hello. I turned and ran to my room, locked the door, and hid in my closet, thinking I was safe there.

Now a little about this kid. His appearance was not really important, other than the fact that he had piercing blue eyes and was at least six inches taller than my pathetic 5'1, probably more. If I was put in charge of writing a resume of his life it would read a little something like this: Preschool Bully- Two years. Elementary school bully: Six years. Middle school bully: Three years. High School Bully: Two and a half years and counting. King of Sadistics for twelve years. Total genius. Class President every year since fifth grade, achieved by stuffing ballot boxes and threatening voters. So yes, he was a "bright and promising student" the same way say, Adolf Hitler or Fidel Castro was "bright and promising". My dad must love this lady an awful lot to marry her and subject me to being related to _him_.

There was a knock on my closet and I jumped up. I opened the door and saw my dad standing there holding the key to my room. I sighed. "Dad," I said.

"Ri, I know you don't like him, but you guys are going to have to try to get along. Can you do that, for my sake?"

"Yeah dad," I said, even though I knew I had blown it by showing that he was intimidating to me. Hah! As if he needed my running away to prove that. "I'll try." _Even though he's big enough to eat me,_ I added in my head.

"Good job," my dad praised. "Now why don't you go introduce yourself?"

"'K" I answered. My dad glared. "I mean 'Okay,'" I sighed. Sometimes having a dad who taught English wasn't a good thing. I got up and carefully traipsed to the foyer, keeping close to my dad for support.

"Hey," I said, extending a hand to my new stepbrother. "I'm Riley, Riley Poole."

He took my hand slowly and crushed it as we shook. "Hello Riley," he said in a voice that sent chills down my spine. "I'm sure we're going to be great friends." That's when I knew my life was over.


	2. The End of Life As We Know It

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AN:

Well, this story appeared to be popular, and I'm having fun with it, so I updated.

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The wedding took place a few months later, in April. My dad picked me to be best man, which is a big honor or something, but I was standing there next to my new 'brother' the whole time, dwarfed by him and the adults in the general area. But I didn't want to disappoint my dad, so I suffered in silence. I was sweating so much, I'm sure I was staining the dress clothes I had been forced to wear. I wasn't sure if it was a tuxedo or a suit. I suppose it was a tux, because that's what you were supposed to wear for this sort of thing, but I was stumped. I really didn't know the difference. Both were blackish and uncomfortable.

I'd have rather been at home in jeans and a T-shirt fiddling around in my old tree house. My dad helped me build it when I was eight, and I had always been proud of it. Me and my best friend Jen would always play up there. We were pirates one day and space explorers the next. At least I would get to keep my house. They were moving in with us. I wondered if any of my few friends would even be willing to come over anymore with _him_ living there. Jen said she would, but once she went home with a black eye, her mom might not be very willing to let her. Even if they did, he'd find a way to make life a living hell. I didn't want him to catch me playing pirate at age thirteen, but I lived for it. I'll also admit I had two or three toy lightsabers stashed up there, but I _definitely _did not want him getting his hands on those. He could probably kill me with them if he felt like it. And believe me, he probably felt like it.

"And do you, Sean Poole…" _HOW LONG IS THIS GOING TO TAKE?!?!?! _I thought angrily. I hope I didn't let any outward signs of that anger show. But it didn't matter anyway. Every minute in front of the congregation was one minute he couldn't hurt me.

"I do," I heard my dad say.

Then the priest guy said "Man and wife." But somehow I heard it come out exactly like the one in the Princess Bride had said it, and resisted the urge to explode with laughter at my own sentencing. After all, normally a man condemned to death (or life with my stepbrother, which is essentially the same thing) is not heard to be happy at the time of the verdict (A.K.A "I do").

But eventually, the ceremony did end, which meant only one thing was imminent. The reception. That meant many partying adults who would not be paying attention to the few children/teens there. Of course, I had completely mapped out and memorized every nook and cranny the place where the reception would be held, and had reached a vital conclusion. There was nowhere to hide. Not in that room anyway. Normally avoiding someone was as simple as ducking into a bathroom, but I knew he'd follow me anywhere, plus Jen would be there, and I didn't want him going after her if I was hidden. I walked to the back where Jen was waiting, stifling a giggle at my appearance, which had somehow pulled off formal and sloppy all at the same time. Perhaps the converses I had insisted on wearing had something to do with it.

"I expected something more like jeans and one of those shirts with a tie printed on it," she observed.

"I was expecting almost the same from you," I shot back. She stuck her tongue out at me. "Wanna walk over?" I asked. "It'll give us time to get some food and hide before _he_ gets there.

"Seriously Riley, you need to relax. Did you tell him I'm a black belt in Karate?"

"Yeah, but he saw right through it," I sulked.

"Riley," she said. I looked up. "There is _no_ way I'm letting that stepbrother of yours get in the way of us trying your dad's groom's cake, understand?" I understood and agreed, I had told her what the cake would be earlier. I nodded.

'_That stepbrother of yours'_ stepbrother! I shuddered inwardly. The worst combination of eleven letters in the entire English language and I get stuck with it. But somehow, Jen's confidence convinced me that I might not die _today_. With that happy thought, we set off for the reception.

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**AN:** Don't you guys just love Jen? I figured Riley needed a friend :)

**SNEAK PEEK: **In the next chapter, we may learn his stepbrother's NAME (dun-dun-DUN!)


	3. The Reception

**AN: **Read & Review!!

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The reception was being held at a hotel called La Grande Puanteur. I suppose whoever named it didn't know much about French. I turned to Jen. "You know what the name means?" I asked.

"The big something," Jen said.

"Stink. It means the big stink."

She giggled. "Well it could have been worse, you know," she replied.

"Like, La Grande Derriere?" This sent both of us into an uncontrollable fit of laughter that made various people walking near us stare. So we were immature. Their lives wouldn't stop now would they?

"Staring is rude," Jen said. And a couple of the people turned around while several others stared even more. "Fine then, be that way," she huffed.

We walked up the stairs and into the hotel lobby. We followed the crowd into a ballroom. The floors were a dark, beautifully polished wood, and the walls were a deep red. That'd make my stepbrother happy. If he killed me, he wouldn't even have to clean up afterwards.

"_Relax,_" Jean reminded me.

"Easy for you to say! You don't have to…"

"Riley!" We both turned around. My other friend Pierre was waving at us and walking our way.

"Hey," said Jen.

"Hey." He looked sideways at me. "The big stink?"

"Apparently," I said. Pierre would know better than anyone, he spoke fluent French, since both of his parents were from France.

"So, why did you not wait for me?"

"We're hiding from," I lowered my voice to a whisper. "You-Know-Who."

"Ah, your 'brother'. I can see why. I'd hate to be stuck with him for the rest of my life."

"Thanks for the consolation," I murmured.

"Hey, it's not forever Ri, he moves out in two years!" Jen reminded me.

"Murder happens overnight," I retorted darkly.

She sighed. "I give up. Let's eat."

They were playing some of that jazzy music stuff my dad likes. I nabbed a few finger sandwiches and some fruit from the table and got cokes for all of us. As I was performing this delicate balancing act, Pierre came just in time to stop the food from falling to the floor. We headed over to where Jen had found a table. It was in the corner, with a great view of the whole room. Pierre and I sat down.

"This is perfect," I marveled, "We can see the door, and then we he comes in I can hide under the table!"

Jen and Pierre exchanged glances. "Could he really be that bad?" asked Jen.

"Where were _you_ when he threw that first grader off the top of the jungle gym three years ago?" I inquired.

"Hiding behind a brick wall with us," Pierre said. "You know, the one the boy hit."

"That was a rhetorical question," I said through gritted teeth.

"I mean, sure he's bad at school and in public, but maybe that's just an act, maybe he's different inside the home," Jen suggested. "A lot of bullies are like that."

"Yeah, sure." I looked up. "HIDE ME!" I yelped, and dived under the table. He was coming.

Through the floor-length tablecloth I saw him approach. "Are you Riley's friends?" I heard him ask.

"Yes we are," I heard Jen say. "I'm Jen, and you must be his new brother. I saw you at the church with the other groomsmen. You looked very handsome." I could imagine Pierre making a face right now. And rightly so. Jen was good; she was buttering him up like toast. I'm sure she didn't mean a word.

"Thank you," he said. "have you seen my little… brother?"

"No, sorry. I was just going to ask you the same question. He went off to look for his dad so he could congratulate him and we haven't seen him since."

"Oh Jen," he said, and I imagine he was shaking his head. "If he's not here, why do you have three plates?"

"We're saving food for him so he doesn't have to wait in the line."

I saw his shadowed form reach for the table cloth "Then you won't mind if I-"

I slipped out from underneath and into the corner. Jen glared down at me. My stepbrother was bent over to pull off the cloth. Jen jerked her head towards the door. I nodded.

"Expose him!" he finished, pulling up the cloth. A he did, I slipped under the table next to ours and watched from there.

"Where is he?" my stepbrother growled. But that was all I heard.

I left the cover of that table and made my way out of the ballroom. As I left I saw him storming off and a thankfully unharmed Jen and Pierre coming towards me.

"Well done," I said.

"He's going to pulverize you, and us," Jen said angrily.

"Oh come on Jen," I said sarcastically. "He can't be _that_ bad."

"Don't make me slap you."

"Technically, he cannot _make_ you do anything," observed Pierre. Jen turned her glare on him.

"Look, guys, follow me, we can stay out of his way and enjoy ourselves," I said.

I led the way to the elevator and pressed the button for the fifth and highest floor. It was not a tall hotel. Once we were there, I opened a door that read 'Stairs to Roof' and we climbed them. The roof was beautiful. There was a rooftop garden, a hot tub and some tables and chairs.

"Brilliant," breathed Pierre.

Jen just whistled.

"He has no idea this place exists," I said.

We sat on the edge of the hot tub with our feet in and talked for a while. After about an hour I checked my watch. "They should be cutting the cake now."

"Do you want to go down?" asked Pierre. We all agreed that cake was worth risking our lives for and shut off the hot tub. We replaced our shoes and headed downstairs to the ballroom, where, sure enough, the cake had just been cut. I sought out my dad.

"Congratulations, Dad," I said and hugged him. Then we got cake. We fled to our corner table to eat it. Pierre was having traditional wedding cake, while Jen and I opted for my dad's chocolate and strawberry groom's cake. It was around this time that they started playing a bunch of cruddish couples-dance slow songs. It was also around this time that I noticed Jen seemed to bee looking at me expectantly.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing," she replied, turning very red.

"Wait… you didn't want to..." my eyes flickered from the dancers to Jen. "You know I can't!" I protested.

"Would you try?" she asked.

"Yeah…" _Yeah? YEAH?!?! Wait a minute there! Did you just _agree_ to make a fool of yourself?!_ I ignored the screaming voice inside my head, instead wondering why I wanted to so badly.

I realized that I was moving, walking unconsciously toward the dance floor. _This is it,_ I thought. Here we go.

We copied exactly what everyone else was doing, and it turns out it wasn't that difficult, or excruciatingly painful in any way. It was actually pretty fun. Until…

"Looks like Riley's got himself a little girlfriend!" I heard someone say. Uh-oh.

"Butt out Ian!" I told him. He narrowed his eyes at me.

"That's not very nice little brother," I glared at him. He glared at me. He winked at Jen and I moved in front of her. And somehow, nobody seemed to notice what was going on.

Pierre was suddenly there at my side. "Ane," he muttered, looking at Ian. I'm not going to translate that one for you. Lucky for Pierre, Ian was not bilingual.

However, a few people who apparently were had turned around and were whispering to each other and I think I overheard Pierre's mother's name a few times.

"I'll see you at home Riley," Ian said, and walked off. Jen, Pierre, and I let out one sigh of apprehension, relief and despair all rolled into one.

That was the beginning of my life with Ian Howe.

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**AN: **Beofore this chapter, I didn't know if the stepbrother was Ian or Ben. But I wanted an Angst story and I like Riley and Ben better as friends than as brothers or stepbrothers for some reason. That's why I chose Ian. Don't like, don't read. If you do like, or dislike, or despise, as long as you read it, send me a nice review. You know where to click :)


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